


Eulogy for Yue Lao

by Bronte



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Ancient China, Angst, F/M, Gen, Heartbreak, Origin Story, Star-crossed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 17:11:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16309301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bronte/pseuds/Bronte
Summary: The British didn’t simply bring soldiers when they took Shanghai. Fu Wang knows this as he stares down from the rooftops of the Old City as his alternate form, eyeing the crowds in the busy night market that lines the streets. He’s being run ragged from the akuma attacks that seem to be coming nightly now and he can hardly keep up with the amount of them. He cannot stop the akuma from appearing and he cannot purify their souls; his kwami had made that abundantly clear. Instead, his role is to keep the outbreaks at bay until the Piáo Chóng is chosen.In the meantime, Fu Wang does what he is supposed to. Patience, after all, is the main trait of a turtle.An Origin Story.





	Eulogy for Yue Lao

**Author's Note:**

> Yue Lao (Chinese: 月下老人; pinyin: Yuè Xià Lǎorén; literally: "old man under the moon") is a god of marriage and love in Chinese mythology. He appears as an old man under the moon. He is comparable to the Shinto kami Musubi-no-Kami, god of matchmaking, love and marriage.
> 
> Guī - Turtle  
> Kǒng Què - Peacock  
> Piáo Chóng - Ladybug  
> Hēi Māo - Black Cat

_The humans said, what is your power?_

_It said, for all of time you will be called a hero,_

_It said, because when you come together, the seven of you,_

_It said, you will be given the Power._

* * *

 

**_1845_ **

**_Old City of Shanghai_ ** **_  
_ **

Fu Wang peers around the corner of an alleyway and holds his breath as British soldiers file through their ranks, brandishing their weapons through the crowds. One of the soldiers, a brash foreign man with white blond hair, tips over a woman’s stall and laughs as the hot oil from her wok spills across the packed dirt streets. Fu Wang waits until the last of the sniggering men pass before darting out onto the main road. He bends quietly and helps the collapsed woman rebuild her ramshackle stall, its wooden legs damp with the moisture of the rainy season.

He notices her age as he picks up the wok, placing it back onto the bowed countertop. Her face is lined like crinkled parchment and her eyes lay mostly hidden behind sagging eyelids and stringy hair. He offers his hand, smiling as he does so, and she takes it easily. Her bones are brittle beneath his palm and her skin is rumpled and delicate, but warm regardless. He looks up at her and she smiles back.

The rest, they say, is history.

~

The British didn’t simply bring soldiers when they took Shanghai. Fu Wang knows this as he stares down from the rooftops of the Old City as his alternate form, eyeing the crowds in the busy night market that lines the streets. He’s being run ragged from the akuma attacks that seem to be coming nightly now and he can hardly keep up with the amount of them. He cannot stop the akuma from appearing and he cannot purify their souls; his kwami had made that abundantly clear. Instead, his role is to keep the outbreaks at bay until the _Piáo Chóng_ is chosen.

In the meantime, Fu Wang does what he is supposed to. Patience, after all, is the main trait of a turtle.

~

“ _Guī_!”

Fu Wang spins around on his heel, crouching instinctively as a strange silhouette leaps from a neighbouring balcony. It lands across from him and balances precariously on the eaves, delicate and deadly. Fu Wang holds his breath as it approaches.

“I am _Kǒng Què_ ,” the voice speaks, and it is strong and feminine. She remains in the shadows of the moon, lighting up the night behind her and Fu Wang wishes he had been given the gift of better eyesight as she leaps from her perch and crosses onto the adjacent rooftop, grasping onto the main truss.

“It is my understanding,” she begins carefully, her voice carrying easily in the humid air, “that the akuma tend to attack mostly at night.”

The woman turns towards him and Fu Wang observes with quiet awe as the moon illuminates her profile. Long black hair and stark blue eyes stare back at him, her skin porcelain and without blemish behind her mask.

“They do.”

She nods and looks downwards towards the throng of hawkers on the streets, “This is good. I must keep my identity a secret.”

“As do us all.”

She turns her head back to him sharply, “There are more of us?”

“So I’ve been told,” Fu Wang rubs the back of his neck with his palm. The old lady, Mistress Xìao, had told him so, “But I do not know where they are. You are the first Miraculous I have ever encountered.”

 _Kǒng Què_ shifts so she’s sitting on the wooden truss, her costume flaring out behind her, “I turned only last night. My kwami told me I would find you here.”

Fu Wang smiles, “It is my favourite spot.”

His eyes graze along the multicoloured stalls where his family works endlessly to feed the crowds of people in the night. Three of his sisters grill the fishes he’d caught earlier on hot coals and the smoke that comes from the meat coils upwards with the evening breezes.

“I have never been. It looks enchanting.”

“You’ve never been to the night market?”

She hesitates, “My status simply would not allow it.”

Fu Wang’s heart drops into his stomach. She is a noble, “Ah.”

“It matters not, not while I am _Kǒng Què._ My duty is to our people now.”

“Of course,” Fu Wang replies, though he still feels some lingering dread being nothing but a lowly peasant himself, “Our role is to trap the akuma. Did your kwami explain?”

“She did,” _Kǒng Què_ replies and her voice is like silk and syrup, “She said we cannot do much until the _Piáo Chóng_ comes to purify them.”

Fu Wang nods and tracks a group of soldiers pushing through the commoners. They split into factions and begin trailing down the alleyways, looking for trouble, “I hope she comes soon.”

“You hope?”

“She has yet to be chosen.”

“Oh,” _Kǒng Què_ trails off, and follows his gaze, “What are those soldiers doing?”

Fu Wang purses his lips, “Letting off steam.”

The group of soldiers corner a middle-aged man and his young daughter against the walls of the opposite alleyway. One grabs at the daughter’s rags while the second wrenches the man’s shoulder from its socket when he attempts to intervene. The men are drunk and Fu Wang has lived on the streets long enough to know what comes next.

Leaping from the rooftop, Fu Wang lands on the man shoving his hands up the daughter’s skirt, slamming him into the hard dirt and knocking the wind out of him. He kicks out as quickly as he can manage, an agility born from living on the margins of society, and bashes the second man’s shin bone hard enough to send him flying to the ground. Fu Wang leaps from his spot on the first man’s prone back and uses a short outcropping to boost him upwards, giving him enough momentum to land on the third man’s shoulders and, using his short legs to steady him, he swings his body around and drops the man unceremoniously to the ground.

Fu Wang hears the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking in his direction and turns as quickly as possible, poised to leap out of the way. It’s too late though and the second man has his fingers on the trigger, staring at him down the barrel of his—

_“YAH!”_

Like a storm in the night, _Kǒng Què_ appears and ruthlessly smashes the man in the back of the head with her talons, her feathers glittering like sapphires in the moonlight. Baffled, the man’s eyes cross and bulge simultaneously before he drops face first onto the muddy ground and _Kǒng Què_ straightens with ease, dusting off her palms. Fu Wang looks up and feels his jaw clatter to the earth at the sight of her, regal and tall and magnificent; her mask, feathered and as blue as where the ocean meets the sky, hides her face from him, but he can tell that she is as beautiful and as powerful as the Empress herself.

“Th-thank you,” he stammers, looking back down at the unconscious man. The other two lay in similar dispositions on the ground, beaten and out cold. The man’s daughter scrambles to her feet in the wake of the attack and tries to lift her father vainly, but he can only clutch his dislocated shoulder and heave in pain.

“Sir!” _Kǒng Què_ sprints towards him and takes his shoulder into her palms, “Can I help you?”

“My arm,” the man moans and _Kǒng Què_ acts quickly, snatching a piece of drying cloth from a clothesline hanging from the windows above them. She fashions a sling with the fabric and Fu Wang is hypnotised by the deftness of her fingers as she wraps and ties the cloth.

“Go home quickly,” she whispers to them, “It is dangerous here.”

The daughter nods fiercely and leads her father deeper into the maze of alleyways. _Kǒng Què_ turns to Fu Wang and smiles wistfully, brushing errant dirt from her palms.

“I did not think my first outing as _Kǒng Què_ would be quite like this.”

Fu Wang smiles in return and his heart is pounding, “You’re lucky. When I transformed for the first time, an akuma tried to flood the entire city with his wrath.”

“That monsoon was an akuma?”

“Oh yes,” Fu Wang chuckles quietly and turns away from the intensity of _Kǒng Què_ ’s gaze, “Good thing I can swim.”

 _Kǒng Què_ laughs in return, “I would like to hear more of your experiences fighting against the akuma.”

“Of course!” Fu Wang responds a little too enthusiastically, a blush creeping past his collar, “But not here. More soldiers will come looking.”

“Yes,” she nods sharply and leaps upwards, scaling the walls. She stops at the tip of the building and stares down at Fu Wang, who’s mouth hangs ajar in her wake, “Well, what are you waiting for? Follow me!”

Fu Wang’s wipes the foolish expression off his face and trails her across the steep rooftops, “Wait up!”

~

Fu Wang pulls himself up out of the water, dripping wet and grinning all the while. A sea dragon! _A sea dragon!_ Who would have ever thought that he could take down a sea dragon?!

“Did you have fun?”

 _Kǒng Què’s_ arms are crossed over her chest, but she’s smiling nonetheless. If he wasn’t already buzzing with excitement, and his body is nearly exploding with it, he would have been admonishing him too.

“That was…amazing!” he pants, holding up his shell above his head in victory. She shakes her head and offers him her hand, helping him to his feet.

“Silly turtle,” she says, smiling at his giddiness. With the poisoned akuma held safely inside his shell for now, she feels secure enough to let her guard down, “You’re lucky you did not get eaten.”

Fu Wang takes a moment to soak in her beauty as he wrings out his costume, soaked and salty from his dip in the harbour, “Have you ever seen anything like that? A sea dragon!”

“I cannot say that I have,” she muses, her eyes crinkled in mirth. She picks a few errant ribbons of seaweed from his hair, brushing his cheek with her thumb, “The people of Shanghai are no doubt impressed with their hero for slaying the serpent beast.”

“I could not have done it without you,” he says earnestly, his eyes wide and honest. She smiles softly and takes his hand in hers again, brushing the rough skin the same way she did his cheek.

“We make a good team, you and I.”

“That we do. And we will keep defending this city until the _Piáo Chóng_ appears to purify the city.”

“ _Guī_ and _Kǒng Què_ , defenders of Shanghai!”

“Defenders of China!”

 _Kǒng Què_ rolls her eyes, “Are you sure you are not an orator in your false life? You certainly behave like one.”

Fu Wang giggles, “You have outed me! Alas, it is I, the Emperor!”

“You are ridiculous.”

“Anything to make you smile.”

“ _Guī…”_

“The summer moon pales in comparison to the splendour of your beauty.”

“Hush,” she laughs, “You are a terrible flirt.”

“And you, my Empress, are my heart’s desire, my—”

“Your Miraculous is about to wear off.”

Fu Wang looks down and, to his dismay, his bracelet is pulsating from the light hidden within, “Right as always, my love.”

“Until we meet again.”

Fu Wang bows his head and gazes at her one last time before leaping onto the rooftops, disappearing from view.

~

“Are you okay, Fu Wang?”

“Hm?”

They’re above the night market again, poised on the eaves of the sloped rooftop he’s more or less claimed as his own over the seasons since becoming _Guī_. He’s in his false guise, his human guise, and Wayzz floats beside him in the evening haze.

“I asked if you were okay.”

The little kwami has always been a worrywart, “I am fine.”

“You do not sound fine.”

Fu Wang sighs, “No, I suppose not.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly.”

“When you are ready, I will be here.”

Fu Wang can’t help but cave, “It is my sister.”

“Which one? You have at least five.”

“Six actually. It is _jiě jie_.”

“The eldest?”

“Yes. My father had her married off last week but now, her husband is demanding more for her dowry.”

“Your family has fallen on hard times already. Does he not know this?”

“Of course. He is just trying to take advantage of us.”

“That is shameful,” Wayzz furrows his eyebrows and crosses his arms, “He should be ashamed.”

“It is hard to be an honest person in dishonest times,” Fu Wang braces his chin in his palm and looks onwards, watching as his remaining sisters fry and sell fish from their family’s stall, “There is nothing I can do.”

A comfortable silence stretches out between them as they survey the scene. Wayzz settles gently on his shoulder and burrows into the collar of his shirt, “I too have many siblings. Eighteen to be precise.”

“There are eighteen other kwami?”

“Yes, and I worry about them constantly.”

Fu Wang chuckles, “You worry about everything.”

“I know,” Wayzz sighs and wrings his little hands together nervously, “Tikki and Plagg are the eldest. They are twins but you would not know it, considering one is shaped like a ladybug and the other is a cat. But they are two halves of the same soul.”

“Soulmates then?”

“In a way, yes. The others were born after,” he continues, “There is Trixx, Pollen and Duusu of course, you have met her bearer. You and the _Kǒng Què_ of this time period are not the first to be paired together.”

“There have been more?”

“Oh yes. Quite a few actually, spread out over the last several millennia. Whenever there is a need for a hero, the Miraculous are sure to follow.”

“Hm,” Fu Wang shifts his weight on the rooftop and crosses his legs, “And does Mistress Xìao own you all?”

“Own?” Wayzz scoffs, covering his mouth with his tiny claws, “Oh no, certainly not. Mistress Xìao was once the bearer of the Bee Miraculous. She was chosen as the Guardian of the Miraculous Box until there was a need for heroes again.”

“What happens when she dies? Does her family take over for her?”

“So long as the Guardian feels they can perform their duty, he or she can live forever.”

“Forever?!” Fu Wang exclaims, reeling backwards.

“Oh yes. Mistress Xìao is over two hundred years old!”

“Two hundred?! How is that even possible?!”

“All of the Miraculous bearers enjoy a certain sense of longevity should they possess their jewelry long enough. It is only when a bearer chooses to give up their Miraculous or is killed in their false form that the bearer dies.”

“So I…I could live forever?”

Wayzz shrugs, “You could if you choose to. Few do though.”

“Why not?”

“Immortality is lonely. Imagine seeing your human friends and family die as you remain unchanged. Imagine enduring centuries of this.”

Fu Wang watches his sisters at their stall and shivers violently despite the summer wind, “That is not a life I would want.”

“Sometimes you are not given a choice. Mistress Xìao will choose the next Guardian and it will then become that bearer’s duty to take care of the Miraculous Box.”

“I hope it is not me,” Fu Wang mutters, wrapping his arms around his knees, “I love being _Guī_ and fighting the akuma, but I still have a family. I cannot imagine life without them.”

Wayzz nods in understanding, “Of course. I’m sure Mistress Xìao will keep that in mind. She may not even choose anyone from this generation.”

“That is a relief,” Fu Wang says quietly and Wayzz responds by burrowing under his collar again, “I would hate to be alone.”

“Nonsense! You will always have me!”

Fu Wang chuckles, “That is right, how could I forget!”

“You forget to buy me rice cakes all the time!”

“Hush, I have to steal those. I cannot afford to buy them.”

“Good thing you have sticky fingers then.”

Fu Wang scowls, “You should not be encouraging me to steal on your behalf. I could get into serious trouble.”

“I would help you break out of jail, it would be easy.”

He laughs, shaking his head, “I am not going to jail just because you have a sweet tooth.”

Wayzz huffs, “Why don’t you ask _Kǒng Què_? She is very wealthy.”

Fu Wang swallows hard, “I cannot ask her that. And how do you even know that?”

“It is quite obvious. That, and Duusu told me so.”

“ _Kǒng Què’s_ Miraculous? When did you two get to talk?”

“Kwami can sense each others’ presences, especially when we are close by. Duusu does not live too far away.”

Fu Wang fiddles with the strings that keep his broken-down shoes together, “She is not an actual princess, is she?”

“I don’t think so, no. But she is a member of the aristocracy and she lives well, judging by her aura. I have never been paired with a female bearer so I cannot be certain of how the women of China live.”

Fu Wang frowns and thinks about his sister, “Must be nice, being rich.”

“Again, I cannot say that I know. Duusu and Nooroo seems to be paired with the wealthy more often than not.”

“Nooroo?”

“The youngest of my siblings. He’s timid and naïve which is why this whole mess started in the first place,” Wayzz sighs and floats out to sit on Fu Wang’s knee, “Kwami are not inherently evil, but their bearers can be. Once a bearer has put the Miraculous on his or her body, we must do exactly as they decide.”

“Even if you were not assigned to that person?”

“Most of us can resist for a while, but not Nooroo. He is too eager to please, too generous. The minute you so much as look at the brooch he inhabits, he will come flying out, begging to be of assistance. Which is why he is currently being used as the power behind the akuma attacks.”

“He cannot stop them?”

“He is powerless to decide anything while he is under his master’s control, and his master is most certainly evil. He shows no desire to do anything other than destroy the city and the people living in it.”

Fu Wang frowns, “Can you steal a Miraculous from someone else?”

“Yes, and most corrupt Miraculous bearers try to do so. That’s why I’m fairly sure that our particular villain came upon Nooroo by accident and has no idea regarding the nature of the Miraculous itself.”

“A British merchant maybe?”

“There’s no doubt.”

Fu Wang takes the pinky finger of his left hand and gently runs it down the shell of his kwami, “I hope we defeat him soon.”

Wayzz smiles and grasps onto the pad of his finger, “We are a team. You and _Kǒng Què_ are a team too! Together, the two of you will be unstoppable.”

Fu Wang cannot help but share in the turtle’s enthusiasm, “Thank you Wayzz.”

“Of course Master.”

~

A year passes.

Fu Wang has buried one sister and welcomed another. He works tirelessly to help his father provide dowries for his other siblings and he sleeps when he is able to, which is never often. Wayzz does his best to make the fire in the mornings so he can get what little rest he can, but the little kwami is feeling the strain just as much as he is.

“How are you faring?”

 _Kǒng Què_ dips her head as Fu Wang yawns and tries not to fall off the eave they’re currently lounging on, “Not well.”

“I had guessed as much,” _Kǒng Què_ replies, taking his hand in hers, “You already know, I could help your family if only you would ask.”

Fu Wang shakes his head, “Mistress Xìao gave us with strict rules. If you were to help me, you would know who I am.”

“Would that be so bad?” she asks, cupping his cheek in her hand so he would turn her way, “You propose to me nightly, my love. We could still run away together. We could be a family, you and I, and make a life for ourselves away from this place.”

“We both know that we can’t do that,” Fu Wang takes a weary breath and stares back out into the harbour, “My family wouldn't survive without me.”

“You could bring them with us.”

“And who would defend the city?”

“Mistress Xìao has to find the _Piáo Chóng_ eventually.”

Fu Wang sighs, “And what of your betrothed?”

“I hate him,” she spits, shivering as the cool breeze of the passing typhoon chills them to the marrow, “He is cruel and unthinking. I don't want to marry him, I want to marry you.”

“I know,” Fu Wang wraps his arm around her shoulder and tugs her close to him. He knows that this will be one of the last times he’ll feel her warmth against his side before her marriage date and tries to savour the moment, “Will you still try and visit me?”

They already know the answer, but it makes them both a little happier to hear her say the opposite, “Of course. There will be no weather or storm that will keep me from you.”

“I love you,” he says into her hair, memorizing the sweet scent of her perfume. Desperately, he wishes to the gods for the strength to leave this place with her and never return.

“And I you,” she replies and their kiss is wet with rain and tears as the thunder clouds boom overhead.

~

It’s another two years before he sees her again.

A _Piáo Chóng_ is chosen and as leader, she fights the many akuma that continue to attack Shanghai in droves. Faced with the loss of _Kǒng Què_ , Mistress Xìao is obligated to find a _Hēi Māo_ as well and together, the three of them fight tirelessly to protect the people of their city. Even the soldiers have been struggling to do much against the constant barrage of supernatural attacks and Fu Wang fears that his family will lose everything they have as he grieves for his younger sister, lost to the throes of cholera, and for his father, who has begun to falter from disease.

He will be expected to take on the role as head of the house.

Mistress Xìao, of course, has other ideas.

It’s late in the night when an unfamiliar silhouette lands with a thud at his side and Fu Wang flinches instinctively, crouching into a fighting stance. The woman beside him is swollen with pregnancy, dangerously so, and Fu Wang immediately reaches out to catch her as she begins to tumble forwards from the momentum of her fall.

“ _Guī!”_

Even after so long, he recognises the sweetness of her voice immediately, “ _Kǒng Què!_ ”

He wraps her in an embrace and she cries into the crook of his neck, grasping him desperately, “Help me, help me please!”

Fu Wang immediately hardens beneath her touch, “Your husband?”

“Yes,” she sobs, “And he's coming, I am so sorry!”

“What?!”

He pushes her away from his chest and finally gets a good look at her, the blue eyes he'd fallen in love with now a sickly violet hue. She sobs as the symbol of a butterfly appears over her skin like a mask and he stumbles backwards at the sight of her, his heart leaping into his throat.

“How did this happen?!” he cries, bracing himself against the truss of the temple roof behind him, “ _Kǒng Què,_ how?”

“He is a monster!” she wails, wrapping her arms around her belly, “He knows what I am! What we are!”

“No,” he shakes his head unbelieving, “He cannot know.”

“He said he would kill them,” she wheezes as she falls to her knees, “My children, he would kill them if I did not lead him to you!”

It takes every bit of strength inside him not to succumb beside her, to hold her, to protect her as she weeps and begs for his touch, but he’s seen what an akuma can do. Tainted, he knows she’s as damned as all the others before her, dangerous and corrupted, stricken and cursed. Every thought she has, every action she makes, they're all controlled by him now, the Butterfly man whose child she carries…

There’s no saving her now.

“I have to go and warn the others.”

She looks up at him desperately, reaching out. He can't, and in his heart of hearts, he knows that she knows too.

“I am sorry.”

He never sees her again.

~

Time passes.

Mistress Xìao’s training in Tibet comes later, and the explosion too. Everywhere he goes, destruction seems to follow. Wayzz never says anything about it, but he imagines he must be the worst Guardian to ever exist.

Still, he chooses new bearers to fight his battles. They take on new villains and he trusts that they'll figure it out like he did on the rooftops of Shanghai. He watches them fall in love and fight and die...

He lives.

And so do the ghosts.

Vietnam, then India, Egypt and Ukraine. He eventually finds himself in Paris through no fault of his own, but Mistress Xìao had always told him to trust his instincts if he were ever to find the two missing Miraculouses that never should have been lost in the first place again.

He doesn't speak French but he's practically immortal. He has time.

And the time comes, of course. After chasing it across continents, the Butterfly reappears in all of its glory, wicked and divinely powerful, if a little flamboyant. Le Papillon’s akuma are infantile compared to the cursed creatures he dealt with as a boy, but they still pose a threat to the city.

Fiddling with the Miraculous Box, he knows it's only a matter of time before Le Papillon takes on a lover, a protegé, a muse to call his _Paon_. When that time comes, he'll wonder what he often wonders late at night, staring up at the cracked ceiling on his bamboo mattress. What happened to her?

And how did it come to this?

The stars, the sky, the plaster ceiling never offers any answers. If there were gods, and Fu Wang certainly doesn't want to even entertain the notion, he hopes they're all deaf from being forced to listen to the millions of pleas being asked of them daily. What else could explain their indifference to his prayers? What else could explain all that had transpired up to now?

He takes a deep breath. As always, Wayzz is by his side and it is time once again to find two new bearers, ones that will hopefully stand a chance against the relentless power of the Butterfly. It's never easy, but his feet will guide him to where he needs to be eventually.

Patience, after all, is the main trait of a turtle.

_fin._

 

**Author's Note:**

> A little sadness to start your Monday.
> 
> This is definitely a different venture for me...I'm hardly sure anyone will be interested in such a story, so I want to thank you so much for reading! Master Fu has always been an intriguing character. He and André have always held a special place in my interests, and I've already captured André in _if i had a wish (i'd wish for more of this_ so it was Master Fu's turn to join the fun!
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!


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